Carolina and I were in the bottom-land above the
old swimming hole on the
Gallia
County Farm. We
were walking through the field not far from the trees which lined Symmes Creek.
After we had stopped for a few minutes, I noticed a pile of rocks which seemed
to have been used for a camp fire. As I starred at the rocks, trying to figure
out who might have been camping out here in the field, I kept looking at a
couple rocks which somehow seemed peculiar. I picked up one of the dull white
rocks, suddenly realizing: it was part of an Indian spear-head!

I was quite excited. I showed the spear-head to Carolina, and then I picked
up another broken spear-head. Each piece was flat and about the size of my hand.
The rock looked like flint; the chips along the edges were sharp and
well-defined. I had never found any Indian artifacts before. My excitement increased when I
found the missing part of the first spear-head – the tip. When I pushed the tip
on top the rest of the spear-head, the two pieces fit perfectly. I showed Carolina
the now-complete elegant spear-head.

The spear-heads proved to me that Indians had once camped here on the Farm
and may have even lived here. This was a revelation to me; as I envisioned
Indians living on the Farm, I began to have a larger vision of Indians all over
the North American continent. An entire civilization had once existed here. The
thought made me sad. An entire civilization had simply been wiped out by
invading Europeans. The history of the Indians had been destroyed.
After destroying the Indian civilization, the white man had acted as if the
civilization had
never existed. Yet here in my hand I was holding the proof. And it made me sad.